No Pass, No Play

…if you are a professor at Norfolk State University, that is. Yesterday, Eric Blair sent me a link to this story from Inside Higher Ed about the denial of tenure and dismissal of a professor of biology named Steven D. Aird at Norfolk State University. The reason? He didn't pass enough of his students. From the article:

In the classes for which he was criticized by the dean for his grading — classes in which he awarded D's or F's to about 90 percent of students — Aird has attendance records indicating that the average student attended class only 66 percent of the time. Based on such a figure, he said, "the expected mean grade would have been an F," and yet he was denied tenure for giving such grades.

Other professors at Norfolk State, generally requesting anonymity, confirmed that following the 80 percent attendance rule would result frequently in failing a substantial share — in many cases a majority — of their students.

To be fair, Norfolk State University caters to students who are typically less prepared for college-level work than the student bodies of most universities:

A subtext of the discussion is that Norfolk State is a historically black university with a mission that includes educating many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The university suggests that Aird — who is white — has failed to embrace the mission of educating those who aren't well prepared. But Aird — who had backing from his department and has some very loyal students as well — maintains that the university is hurting the very students it says it wants to help. Aird believes most of his students could succeed, but have no incentive to work as hard as they need to when the administration makes clear they can pass regardless.

Other professors at the university claim that the administration leans hard upon them to pass at least two-thirds of their students, regardless of performance:

One reason that this [high percentage of D's and F's] does not happen (outside Aird's classes) is that many professors at Norfolk State say that there is a clear expectation from administrators — in particular from Dean Sandra J. DeLoatch, the dean whose recommendation turned the tide against Aird's tenure bid — that 70 percent of students should pass.

Aird said that figure was repeatedly made clear to him and he resisted it. Others back his claim privately. For the record, Joseph C. Hall, a chemistry professor at president of the Faculty Senate, said that DeLoatch "encouraged" professors to pass at least 70 percent of students in each course, regardless of performance. Hall said that there is never a direct order given, but that one isn't really needed.

"When you are in a meeting and an administrator says our goal is to try to get above 70 percent, then that indirectly says that's what you are going to try to do," he said. (Hoggard, the university spokeswoman, said that it was untrue that there was any quota for passing students.)

Oh, but it is true, for my very first teaching position (as an adjunct history professor) was at an institution very similar to Norfolk State University. Many students came to class woefully unprepared, regular attendance was a constant problem, and grades were terrible. Any professor is limited as to what he can do to help student performance. No professor can make a student study hard enough, come to class on time regularly, or complete and comprehend all of the reading assignments. Horse, water, drink, and all that.

If Professor Aird is guilty of anything, it is of not conforming to the soft bigotry of low expectations that seems to prevail at Norfolk State. In so doing, he was helping far more students than that university's administration ever has.